A few of my latest...

[Master Geppetto]

I did a little more experimenting with designs and came up with these. All three pens are desert ironwood inlaid with real turquoise. I added some copper shot to the middle Southwest Meza pen.

I'm not sure why the photo keeps going sideways. Is there a way I can change that?

 

[bsshog40]

Those are very nice! If I may ask, how do you inlay on them?

 

[Master Geppetto]

Those are very nice! If I may ask, how do you inlay on them?

For the cactus, I take a small chisel (actually a parting tool from a mini-skew set used sideways) after I have almost turned the wood down to where I want it and carve the shape of the cactus into the wood. I try to go as deep as I can without hitting the brass tube. I then take turquoise powder and mix it up with some thick CA and use a toothpick to drip it into the carved cactus. After it has dried (I use a bit of accelerator to make it faster) I turn off all the excess turquoise and apply a CA finish.

For the Meza, I simply cut the grooves while it was turning. When I add copper pieces in my inlays, I use a file to take down the excess turquoise before I continue turning the blank. Otherwise, I end up looking through the dust piles and tools for the microscopic piece of copper that fell out when the chisel caught it.

 

[TonyL]

Great work; I have not been able to master the crushed stone with CA.

 

[Jim15]

Those look great.

 

[magpens]

Very nice work, Stephen !! . Thanks for explaining how you do the turquoise inlays ... you are obviously very skilled !!